Letter: No need to put atrocities in a league table

HOW DOES David McKittrick reach the conclusion that 'loyalist violence has always been more nakedly sectarian than that from the republican quarter'? ('Loyalist paramilitaries declare new war of terror in Ulster', 24 January). Has he already forgotten Bessbrook, Darkley and Enniskillen, to name some of the more outrageous mass sectarian killings by the IRA and INLA?

Where ethnic hatred and violence are concerned, it seems pointless to try and establish some sort of league table of atrocity. At the beginning of the break-up of Yugoslavia we were assured by most journalists that the Serbs were the villains, contrary to what could be learnt from the recent history of that unfortunate country; now it seems that our mentors are not so sure. Somehow a scapegoat always seems to be necessary.

R A Steele

Larne, Co Antrim